"It's Love Baby (24 Hours Of The Day)" - Ruth Brown

While in Grand Rapids in October I was inspired to dig into artist Ruth Brown thanks to a phenomenal swing & blues DJ, Andi Hansen. A song Andi loves to listen to is Ruth Brown's "It's Love Baby (24 Hours of the Day)". As a consequence, I really enjoy it too.

Ruth Brown first signed with Atlantic records. Throughout the fifties Ruth Brown had hit after hit on the Billboard R&B chart. According to Wikipedia, between 1949 and 1955 records by Brown stayed on the R&B chart for a total of 149 weeks: 16 top 10 records, along with 5 number one hits. During the sixties she receded from the public view to care for her family. In 1975 she came back to a musical career that eventually included winning a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical as well as a Grammy for Best Female Jazz Artist.

Other notable awards include:  recipient of the Pioneer Award (1989), inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall Of Fame (1992), inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1993), and another Grammy nomination for R + B = Ruth Brown (1997).

Ruth Brown had hosted a program carried by NPR affiliates called BluesStage. I wasn't able to find any recordings of the program itself, but I did find an interview she did with NPR from 1993. In this interview Brown talks about her early life, admiration for Billie Holiday, and she sang as well while the host, Marian McPartland, accompanies on piano. One quality Ruth Brown highlights is the joy she injects into the songs she sings. In discussing Fine & Mellow she says she can't help but add more life and playfulness to the song than the Billie Holiday version, similarly with the song that got her inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "Mana, He Treats Your Daughter Mean".

According to Second Hand Songs the song itself was originally recorded by Louis Brooks and His Hi-Toppers in May of 1955. Brown's version was released in August of that year. I enjoy this song because of the energy. It's a driving song with a consistent rhythm section and a playful saxophone. There is a buoyant quality to her version that makes me want to dance (it's now going in the practice rotation).

Some Additional Versions:

It's love Baby - Earl Gaines with Louis Brooks & his Hi-Toppers

The Midnighters - It's Love Baby (24 Hours A Day)

Earl Gaines - It's Love Baby 24 Hours A Day

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Sources
https://secondhandsongs.com/work/34960/originals#nav-entity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Brown
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/ruth-brown
http://www.npr.org/event/music/358587932/ruth-brown-on-piano-jazz

'You Don't Love Me, Baby' - Junior Wells

While at Bring Your Own Blues in Lansing, MI I was able to hear Mr. Harrison, a Lansing based blues band. The band was a welcome surprise.I'd never heard them before, or known them to play for dancers, but they are one of the most enjoyable blues bands I've heard in a long time. In part, I thoroughly enjoyed their breadth of blues sub-genres they played. Specifically, they played a cover of 'You Don't Love Me, Baby' by Junior Wells - a song I haven't heard covered by any other contemporary band, at least live (upon doing research Magic Sam has a fun version of this song, and the song itself is a cover of earlier artists such as Billie Cobb and Bo Diddley - though there is apparently some claim that Cobb covered a similar song by Diddley, but I digress).

This song is off of Junior Well's 1965 debut album, Hoodoo Man Blues. Personally, this is one of my favorite albums (along with Southside Blues Jam). This album was an early collaboration between Buddy Guy and Wells. The innovative album become one of Delmark Record's best sellers and has been included for preservation in the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."

Junior Wells himself moved to Chicago in 1948 with his mother from West Memphis, AK. He began playing for house parties and bars with the local musicians. Influenced by Little Walter, he played harmonica with an 'amplified style' that is on full display in Hoodoo Man Blues. On the cover of Hoodoo Man Blues, Wells tells the story of how he came to possess a harmonica: "I went to this pawnshop downtown and the man had a harmonica prices at $2.00. I got a job on a soda truck... played hookey from school ... worked all week and on Saturday the man gave me a dollar and a half. A dollar and a half! For a whole week of work. I went to the pawnshop and the man said the price was two dollars. I told him I had to have that harp. He walked away from the counter – left the harp there. So I laid my dollar-and-a-half on the counter and picked up the harp. When my trial came up, the judge asked me why I did it. I told him I had to have that harp. The judge asked me to play it and when I did he gave the man the 50 cents and hollered "Case dismissed!" (1948)

In 1952 he began to play and recorded a session with Muddy Waters for Chess Records. Wells went on to record several records including Southside Blues Jam, On Tap, and Come On In This House. He died in Chicago in 1998.

The song opens with Buddy Guy on the guitar, kicking into a high energy groove. Junior Wells comes in singing soon after. I love the energy of this song, the rhythm in the guitar, and the stops where the band drops out. The tempo also gradually increases as the song continues. Wells' harmonica comes in the last thirty or so seconds of the song.

Musicians on the album:

Junior Wells - Harmonica, Vocals
Buddy Guy - Guitar, Vocals
Jack Myers - Bass
Bill Warren - drums

Below are two additional versions of the song I think are worth a listen:

Bo Diddley - You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)

Willie Cobb - You Don't Love Me

Junior Wells - You Don't Love Me, Baby

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Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/hoodoo-man-blues-mw0000208353
https://www.facebook.com/MrHarrisonBlues/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_Man_Blues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Don%27t_Love_Me_(Willie_Cobbs_song)
https://secondhandsongs.com/work/58716
http://www.delmark.com/rhythm.junior.htm

Marty Grosz's 'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You'

Love makes me treat you
The way that I do
Gee baby, ain't I good to you

Today's research was inspired by Marty Grosz's version of 'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You', linked here.

'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You' was written in 1929 (according to Wikipedia) by Andy Razaf and Don Redman and later popularized by the King Cole Trio in 1944. It has been covered ad infinitum since by artists like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Rushing, Ruth Brown, and the artist I'm interested in today: Marty Grosz. 

Grosz is an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, and composer who was born in Berlin. He has a long history of creating and performing with a variety of artists. He studied at Columbia University in New York and started recording in 1950. He afterwards moved to Chicago for 20 years before returning to New York City. I became aware of his work because of the Fat Babies in Chicago, who still play weekly at the Green Mill. In exploring more of the local Chicago music (and the music of the Fat Babies in particular) I found the album ,Diga Diga Doo, Grosz recorded with the Fat Babies and James Dapogny, a Michigan based jazz pianist who still plays on Sundays in Ann Arbor. In looking into Grosz's music I found this version of 'Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You' off the album Ring Dem Bells. 

From a dancer's perspective, this is a jazz song that I'll have a ballroomin' dance to (Slow Drag as well). The song has a languid and relaxed feeling throughout. In the notes I keep for the song I think of it as flowing, but with moments of tension and release. Opening with a couple bars of Grosz's guitar, it's an instrumental version. Since there is not a vocal line different instruments take turns with the melodic 'verse'. A muted trumpet carries much of the lyrical burden followed by a woodwind instrument-likely clarinet-and Marty Grosz on guitar. All of this is backed by brushes on the drums, a steady bass, and piano. As a DJ, I love this song as a slower number that still has consistent and ever present energy. 

The musicians for this album:

Marty Grosz - Guitar, vocals
Jon-Erik Kellso - Trumpet
Scott Robinson - Clarinet, soprano sax, baritone sax
Martin Litton - piano
Greg Cohen - Bass
Chuck Riggs - Drums

For the interested a few notable versions of the song are below, as well as Marty Grosz's:

Nat King Cole Trio

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Billie Holiday

Marty Grosz

Sources and Links

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee,_Baby,_Ain%27t_I_Good_to_You

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Grosz

http://www.allmusic.com/album/diga-diga-doo-hot-music-from-chicago-mw0002809003

http://www.martygrosz.com/biography.htm

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/marty-grosz-mn0000858488/biography